Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42)

It is good when siblings serve the Lord together. Have you ever wondered about Tryphaena and Tryphosa whom Paul sends greetings to in Romans 16:12 and describes them as working hard for the Lord there? I wonder what they did for Jesus. The meanings of their names are similar, each meaning delicate. Some speculate that they were twin sisters and not physically strong from birth, hence their names. The Bible does not tell us how they were converted, but it does tell us that they worked hard for Jesus.

Martha and Mary served Jesus as well. It looks from Luke’s account as if it was Martha’s house and that Mary was living there. We know from John’s Gospel that two men also lived in the house. One was their brother Lazarus, and the other was a man called Simon the leper who obviously had been cured of his disease, perhaps by Jesus. Simon could have been the father or an uncle of the other three or he could have been the husband of Martha or just some other relative. The Bible scholar A. T. Robertson mentions that ‘It is curious that in an old cemetery at Bethany the names of Martha, Eleazar, and Simon have been found.’

We are not told how the people in the house came to know Jesus. But as sinners they had come to know him as Saviour and that was the start of a great friendship with him. It was a home that Jesus loved to be in, and the sisters had noticed that there was a special bond between him and their brother. We can see that was the case by the way they described their brother to Jesus in John 11:3: ‘Lord, he whom you love is ill.’

On this occasion, it would not just have been Jesus that Martha welcomed into her home but also the disciples that were with him. We can see from verse 38 that Jesus literally led his disciples into the village (it was customary at that time for disciples to follow their teacher physically, listening to him as they walked in his steps). So there were possibly fifteen men in the house – Jesus and his twelve disciples and Lazarus and Simon.

An obvious general application to make from this incident is that Jesus was willing to use homes as suitable places for teaching and fellowship. In addition to the home in Bethany, we know that after the marvellous Day of Pentecost described in Acts 2, we are told about the use of homes in Jerusalem for regular Christian activities. In Romans 16 as well, Paul mentions homes in Rome where Christians met for frequent fellowship.

What can be said about Martha?

We need to be careful when speaking negatively of Martha because she was one of Jesus’ favourites. John tells us that Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus (John 11:5). She was a highly-favoured believer who had a rough day. Still, her day is recorded so that we can learn how not to have them. As Spurgeon observed about Jesus and Martha, ‘Since He appreciated Martha’s character, it is not for us to depreciate it.’ So we should approach the story of Sister Martha with a desire to learn.

The first detail to note is that she was glad to see Jesus. She welcomed him into her house when he arrived at Bethany. It is a wonderful picture of her enthusiasm for Jesus and her gladness and joy that once again he was in her home. The impression given is that she was willing for Jesus to make himself at home in her home. The name ‘Martha’ means ‘mistress of the house’, and she certainly lived up to her name. Maybe you have read Spurgeon’s comment on Martha in one of his daily readings: ‘Happy Martha, to have an opportunity of entertaining so blessed a guest; and happy, too, to have the spirit to throw her whole soul so heartily into the engagement.’

It looks as if Martha went quickly to the equivalent of the kitchen, although in her case, the place for preparing a meal might have been outside. Luke however, in commenting about her preparation, says that Martha was distracted with much serving. Distracted from what? Seeing the bigger picture would be one answer to that question. It is possible for that kind of thing to happen to a Christian. A frequent danger occurs to a person when his current activity fills the horizon so nothing else is of any significance and he thinks that everyone should be concerned about his contributions.

As time passed, we can see that in the kitchen it was not just the pans and the kettle that were boiling. Martha was simmering, about to burst. She must have had a tempestuous, fiery nature. It looks as if she has lost her self-control in the circumstances. In her reasoning, she had also worked out who was to blame for the situation. Bizarrely, she thought Jesus was to blame. That is obvious from her outburst: ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.’ Her question is an accusation in which she suggests that the Lord does not care about her.

The tense of the verb in her question opens a window on what her problem was. The verb in the phrase ‘my sister has left me’ is in the imperfect tense, suggesting that Mary had left her, perhaps a few times, going into the preparation area and then back to where Jesus was. Mary must have been involved initially in the preparation, but she seems to have left Martha more than once to go and listen to Jesus. After all, Jesus would be speaking to the others who were in the room about the kingdom of God.

Martha may also have been disturbed by Mary’s anti-cultural behaviour. The women did not usually sit with the men (in the incident recorded in John 12 at which Mary anointed Jesus with her expensive ointment, only men are sitting at the table). Such behaviour could have been very embarrassing. What would the other guests think? What would the neighbours think? Of course, what really matters is what Jesus would think of Mary’s actions.

It is obvious from the incident that one of Martha’s gifts was hospitality. It is a wonderful gift to have and she was skilled at it. Yet she misused it in two ways. First, she used her gift in a way that prevented her spending time with Jesus. Second, she wanted to use her gift in a way that would prevent another person from spending time with Jesus, even her sister Mary. It is easy to misuse our gifts in a self-centred way.

Another lesson we can learn from Martha is that sometimes love for Jesus can make mistakes. The reason why Martha was engaged in her range of activities was because she loved Jesus strongly. She wanted him to have a great meal and she rushed ahead with her preparations. But her response was not wise, and she does not seem to have considered what Jesus would have preferred her to do. Her response was better than doing nothing, but there were spiritual dangers in it for her. Instead of being Jesus-focussed, she became self-focussed. We need to watch out that our enthusiastic love for Jesus does not cause us to make similar mistakes.

Jesus responded to Martha in a gentle, endearing but frank manner. The gentleness and endearment are seen in the double use of her name. His rebuke is seen in the contrast between the many things that were a priority for Martha and the one thing that was a priority for Mary. It is not good to have too many priorities because they can affect us spiritually. In Martha’s case, her priorities made her anxious and troubled. Imagine welcoming Jesus into your house and then getting wrongly anxious and troubled about what to do for him.

We are not told what Martha’s response was to this rebuke by Jesus. Maybe she immediately realised her error and repented right away of her words and actions. After all, the words of Jesus could have come with power into her soul. That would be what normally would happen when Jesus lovingly corrected one of his people at that time in his ministry, and it is what should happen today when he speaks to us from his Word.

What can we say about Mary?

The first thing that we are told about her was that she sat at the feet of Jesus. A rabbi in Israel would not let a woman sit at his feet. So Jesus was pleased to give her a special experience of his grace. In fact, he allowed her to be physically closer than most others in the room.

Others in the room would have been reclining on couches or sitting at a table. Her posture pointed to her humility in the presence of Jesus and the intensity of her desire concerning Jesus. She wanted to be very close to Jesus so that she would hear every word that fell from his lips. Therefore, she was careful to choose the best place to sit as well as eager to hear. The main reason, of course, why she wanted to be there was her love for Jesus. She had many reasons for loving him and she loved to hear his explanations of the spiritual life. Because she did so, she had great understanding of his role as Saviour, including understanding better than others what his imminent death was for.

Mary had made a choice between preparing the meal and listening to Jesus. If Jesus had been resting, then she would have helped her sister prepare the meal for their guests. But he was speaking about matters that were good for her soul, so she chose what was the more important. Given that she had been with her sister and left her, we can assume that she had seen that enough preparation had been made in the kitchen. We have to choose sometimes between the pointless and the best. Whatever offers fellowship with Jesus should come first.

Luke does not tell us what Mary thought about the interruption of Martha or the response of Jesus. The account suggests she was still sitting at the feet of Jesus when he corrected her sister. Of course, that is the position to take whenever we see someone being corrected by God’s Word. Paul’s words to the Galatians come to mind: ‘Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted’ (Gal. 6:1). Mary would need to have a forgiving heart for her sister’s offences.

Applications

One application from Martha’s experience that day. It has been pointed out that part of her problem was that she could not be in two rooms at the same time. In her case, the longer she spent in the kitchen preparing food for Jesus, the less time she could be with the disciples getting spiritual food from Jesus. The equivalent of the two rooms does not need to exist side by side in our spiritual experience because we can take Jesus with us into the activity we are doing for him. We should be one-room Christians, making sure that Jesus is with us in our service. Because if he is not, why are we doing it?

One application from Mary’s experience. Jesus says about her that she had had a good ‘portion’. The word translated as ‘portion’ is also the word for meal. What does Jesus have in mind? It is not likely to be salvation – both Mary and Martha were saved persons, but here Jesus is indicating a difference between them. It probably refers to spending time at the table of fellowship with Jesus, which is how our souls are built up in love and devotion. There is nothing that can be a substitute for this.

An application from both Mary and Martha together. One author made the comment that Martha and Peter were similar in character and that Mary and John were similar in character. Martha and Peter were mainly active while Mary and John were more contemplative. Christians are not clones, each is different, and such differences can beautify the Christian community.

Another application from both Mary and Martha together. It is not found in Luke 10 but in John 12 where Martha and Mary again are connected to a meal in their home with Jesus and his disciples. On this occasion, both Martha and Mary give their best to Jesus. Martha serves and shows her love for Jesus and his disciples; Mary once more reveals the love in her heart for Jesus by doing something unusual at the feet of Jesus when anointing them with her precious ointment and drying them with her hair.

Martha reminds us of what used to be a common spiritual warning – beware the business of a busy life. If there is no time for being with Jesus, as Martha was on her busy day, then we are too busy.